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Imagine your sitting at home with nothing to do.  Or perhaps you're going out, and you're waiting for your spouse to finish getting ready.  Perhaps there's nothing good on television [1].  Perhaps you're simply bored.  What do you do?

If you're like a lot of people, you grab your smartphone....check email, check Facebook, check Twitter....check email again.....

It's not a great habit, but it's a powerful one (and one that tech companies have carefully cultivated in their users).  

So while we lament the brilliant minds who are wasting time staring at their phones, we can also ask ourselves, "can this help us market art?"

In fact, I think it represents a huge opportunity for artists.  You see, more and more people seem to be pulling out their phones and staring at those screens and, like the slot machine player who just keeps pulling the lever, the keep desperately checking email and social media...hoping to hit the jackpot.

And your art could be that jackpot.

When people pull out their phones, most of them check email.  In fact, the latest number I saw said that 56% of all email opens happen on a mobile device.  

And, if you've been following my advice over the past seven years, you now have a nice email list built up.  And the shifting demographics of technology has added a tailwind to your efforts.  Not only is email still the most effective marketing channel, in the years since I first recommended you build an email list, the tech companies have put a device in every person's pocket so that everyone carries their email with them everywhere the go.  Moreover, those same companies have cultivated addicted their users to using that device all the time.

If you've built your list correctly, your subscribers want to hear from you.  They love your art.  They're craving for interesting, beautiful, human connections.  And they're so bored and, sometimes, desperate, that they'll pull out their phone and "pull the slot machine lever."

Imagine, at that moment, your beautifully mobile formatted newsletter arrives [2], presenting your fan with your wonderful art and a great story about why you created it that draws them in.  If you've got an easy call to action, you might just have a sale.  Or you might have simply inspired a follower and made someone's day better, which is a noble achievement in and of itself.

Sincerely,

Clint Watson

FASO Founder, Software Craftsman and Art Fanatic

[1]  There's never anything good on television.  That's why we simply stopped turning it on.

[2]  If you need an easy way to create and send beautiful, mobile-ready newsletters, try our service, created just for artists: ArtfulMail.